Armor draft pick Dennis Horner 'living the dream' playing with New Jersey Nets

The Republican photo by Dave RobackDennis Horner, shown here scoring against Maine in the Armor season opener, has been on the New Jersey Nets roster since the start of the NBA season.

How does a guy go from being completely ignored by the NBA coming out of college to playing for the New Jersey Nets a little more than a year later?

If you can figure it out, let Dennis Horner in on the secret.

The Springfield Armor third-round draft pick is still bewildered by circumstances that have put him in an NBA uniform playing professionally in his home state of New Jersey.

“When I started in Springfield, this isn’t really where I thought I’d be at this point,” Horner said. “It really is crazy. It’s great that my family can drive an hour and a half up one road and come see me play and live my dream.”

Oh, the roads Horner has taken since finishing up at North Carolina State in the spring of 2010. The 6-foot-9 native of Linwood, N.J., had no suitors after four years with the Wolfpack in which he was a steady but unassuming player.

Seeking to keep alive his dream of a professional career, Horner signed to play in Cyprus, the island nation in the Mediterranean Sea known more for its role in Greek Mythology than for basketball.

Stints there and in Belgium (another hoops hotbed) were enough to make Horner realize that home is where the heart is, and his heart wanted his body back on U.S. soil.

Determined to give professional basketball another shot, Horner packed up and headed to Louisville, Ky., last summer to take a shot at the NBA Development League national tryout.

“After Europe, I wanted to give the D-League a try, so I worked hard over the summer. I was in the gym every day, twice a day sometimes,” Horner said. “I went to the Louisville tryout and I guess I impressed some people.”

That’s about the time things really started to fall into place for Horner. Working out at the national tryout, Horner caught the eye of more than just the Armor people. He could have been drafted by any of the other 15 D-League teams.

It could have been a team that did not have a hybrid affiliation, which makes for more movement between NBA team and D-League team, but it wasn’t. It was the Armor, the D-League partner of the Nets, an NBA team short on forwards.

And there was labor strife in the NBA, the teams having locked out the players. This meant that when games resumed, the teams would be in need of in-shape players at least for the early part of the season.

The lockout ended at just the right time, with dozens of D-Leaguers getting invitations to NBA training camps to fill the rosters with players ready to roll.

Armor guards JamesOn Curry and Jerry Smith were invited to the Nets along with Horner, and center Jeff Foote was invited to Portland’s camp.

As it turned out, the Nets were looking for an athletic forward, and when they opened the season Dec. 26, Horner was on an NBA roster.

“Everything that I needed to happen for me, even things that were a long shot, really just paid off,” Horner said. “The hybrid affiliation, (Armor) coach (Bob) MacKinnon and coach (Chris) Carrawell really had us running the Nets offense and had us in great shape so that when we got to training camp we fit in. It was just a great situation.”

Horner did not play in the Nets’ opener, a win over Washington, but played nearly eight minutes in their home-opening loss to Atlanta at the Prudential Center in Newark.

Horner got on the court in two of the first five games – not a great deal of playing time, but enough for him to know he loves where he’s at.

“Everything I worked for since I was five or six or whenever it was when I was pretending to be in the NBA, I was finally able to step on the court,” Horner said. “It was a dream come true.”

He earned his first NBA paycheck last week, easily making more in two weeks than he would have made in a full season with the Armor.

Horner had a practical expense for his first spending spree.

“They’re kicking me out of the hotel I’m staying in. They’re not paying for it anymore, so I have to find a place to live before anything,” he said.

If Horner sticks with the Nets through Feb. 10, five days after his birthday, he will be guaranteed the rookie salary of $473,604.

Not a bad six months, going from paying his own way to try out for the D-League to being on the verge of making a half million dollars this season.

“Every day that I’m here is great for me and hopefully I stick around,” Horner said.